I will be in Brussels the week of July 4th. Is there any place to see or buy magic there? The shops I knew when I lived there (Klingsor and Raimoni) appear to be long gone. Does anyone know of any bookshops that might have French magic books?

If you can't find any magic shops, take a day to visit the town of Bruges. It is like stepping back hundreds of years in time. Most of it was built before America was discovered. (And almost every second shop is a chocolatier).

In Brussels there is one magic shop, A&T Magic Shop: 45 rue Van Artevelde, 1000 Brussels (http://www.atmagic.be/). A visit is worth, but make sure you identify yourself as a magician, as the magic department is "off-limits" to non-magicians. Mephisto's shop is not in Brussels, but outside. Not sure if it's open to the public or if it works only as a mail-order business.

And make sure you try strawberries dipped in chocolate... they're awesome!!! :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I noticed elsewhere a reference to a shop called Raimoni at the same address on rue Van Artevelde, but I do not think that is the location of the shop that I used to go to. One main purpose of the trip is to show my daughter the places her parents lived before she was born. Chocolate will be a definite part of that. We will also go to Bruges, a place that we always took visitors.

I won't be able to convince the family to take a side trip to Kortrijk to go to Mephisto. When I lived in Belgium, there were two shops in that town, kind of like the Colon of Belgium. The first convention I attended was one of their's.

In Brussels:
The Atomium
The famous coffin bar
There is a magic themed restaurant (I forget the name)
Christian Chelman lives there and has an amazing collection of oddities
And there are street performers here and there
and the wiff of Belgian waffles & chocolate in the air.

The only magic shop in Brussels is indeed A&T magic shop. Adress above is correct (it is at walking distance from the "Grand Place". It is no more run by the Raimoni family but by Alex and Thierry Lewis and ideed, identify yourself as magician to get access to the magic part of the shop.

Select Magic (www.selectmagic.be)formally "competitor" of Mephisto in Kortrijk purchased the reminder of Mephisto inventory and there indeed located outside of Brussels (about 1:15 driving).

The restaurant that propose magical entertainment is "The Magic Rubens" (www.magic-rubens.com) also walking distance from "Grand Place".